Generally in a case of mounting electronic components such as chip components on electric circuit boards (hereinafter referred to as “substrates”) of electronic devices, the electronic components are continuously automatically replenished while unwinding a component supply tape storing the electronic components at a prescribed pitch from a reel wound with the component supply tape by a component replenishing unit, and mounted on substrates by a component mounting device (refer to Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-199567 and Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2-165696, for example).
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a component supply tape used for a conventional component supply device. FIG. 11 is a schematic plan view showing the structure of a conventional component mounting device.
First, a component supply tape T100 is described with reference to FIG. 10.
The component supply tape T100 consists of a carrier tape T200 made of cardboard or the like, electronic components (illustration omitted) stored in component storage portions T210 formed in the carrier tape T200 and a cover tape T300 stuck to the carrier tape T200 to cover the component storage portions T210 in order to prevent the electronic components from jumping out of the component storage portions T210.
The carrier tape T200 is formed by the component storage portions T210 and feeding holes T220 making the carrier tape T200 apply transportational force for moving the component supply tape T100. The cover tape T300 is made of a PET-system resin material stuck onto the carrier tape T200 for preventing the electronic components sealed in the component storage portions T210 from dropping out of the carrier tape T200. The component supply tape T100 formed in this manner is wound on a reel 300 (see FIGS. 12A to 12C), and set on a component supply device 530 (see FIG. 11) supplying the electronic components to a component mounting device 500.
The conventional component supply device is now described. The component supply tape T100 is wound on the reel 300 and transported by a feeder (illustration omitted) while being supported by a guide, so that the electronic components are exposed from the component supply tape T100 (see FIG. 10) by an electronic component exposing unit (illustration omitted). An electronic component adsorption/mounting unit 540 (see FIG. 11) so vertically moves that the exposed electronic components are supplied to a forward end portion of the electronic component adsorption/mounting unit 540.
As shown in FIG. 11, parts of component supply devices 530 supplying various electronic components one by one to extraction positions (component adsorption positions) for the respective electronic components are attachably/detachably parallelly provided in plural on a base 590 in the conventional component mounting device 500 (electronic component mounting device) such as that disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-199567. The number of the types of electronic components preparable in the component mounting devices 500 can be increased as the number of the set component supply devices 530 is increased, and hence groups of the component supply devices 530 are parallelly provided on both of the left and right sides of a substrate transportation conveyor 510 at clearance intervals of not more than about 1 mm.
The substrate transportation conveyor 510 registers transported substrates 520 on prescribed positions, and transports the same in a prescribed transportation direction after electronic components are mounted on the substrates 520. X beams 550 are a pair of left and right members extended in the transportation direction for the substrates 520, and actuators (illustration omitted) consisting of linear motors or the like are mounted on both end portions thereof.
The X beams 550 are movably supported by Y beams 570 arranged in a direction orthogonal to the transportation direction for the substrates 520, and movably interposed between the component supply devices 530 and the substrates 520 by the actuators (illustration omitted). Electronic component adsorption/mounting units 540 are set on the X beams 550 along the longitudinal direction of these X beams 550. The component mounting devices 500 are further driven by driving systems (illustration omitted).
The component mounting devices 500 are so driven in the aforementioned manner that the electronic components are adsorbed in the component supply devices 530 and mounted on the substrates 520. Recognition cameras 560 and nozzle storage portions 580 are arranged between the component supply devices 530 and the substrate transportation conveyor 510. The recognition cameras 560 are those for acquiring misregistration information of the electronic components adsorbed by the electronic component adsorption/mounting units 540 in the component supply devices 530, and can confirm misregistration of the electronic components in the substrate transportation direction and the direction orthogonal to the substrate transportation direction, rotation angles, and the presence or absence of adsorption states of the electronic components and the like, by picking up images of the electronic components.
The X beams 550 and the Y beams 570 so parallelly operate that the electronic component adsorption/mounting units 540 acquire the misregistration information of the electronic components by passing the same on the recognition cameras 560 when moving from the component supply devices 530 onto the substrates 520. The nozzle storage portions 580 are storage regions for a plurality of adsorption nozzles (illustration omitted), which are necessary for adsorbing and mounting various electronic components, mounted on the electronic component adsorption/mounting units 540. In a case of being instructed to mount adsorption nozzles corresponding to the electronic components, the electronic component adsorption/mounting units 540 are moved up to the nozzle storage portions 580 by parallel operations of the X beams 550 and the Y beams 580, so that the adsorption nozzles are exchanged.
The component supply device and the electronic component exposing unit are described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-199567. In the component supply device 530, there has been such a problem that the component mounting device 500 cannot mount the electronic components on the substrates 520 but stops in a case where the loaded component supply tape T100 is exhausted and an operator does not immediately perform replenishment of a new component supply tape T100.
In order to solve this problem, a component supply device of Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2-165696 includes a unit automatically supplying a new component supply tape T100 when sensing exhaustion of a preceding component supply tape T100 and an electronic component exposing unit.
The electronic component exposing unit is provided with a cutter unit exposing a cover tape T300 on an upper portion with respect to a transportation path, thereby cutting open the cover tape T300 following transportation of a component supply tape T100, exposing electronic components, and extracting the electronic components.
FIGS. 12A to 12C are diagrams showing an automatic replenishing unit of Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2-165696, where FIG. 12A is a left side elevational view of a principal portion, FIG. 12B is a left side elevational view of a cassette portion, and FIG. 12C is a front elevational view of a principal portion of the automatic replenishing unit.
As shown in FIGS. 12A to 12C, a conventional automatic replenishing unit 100 for the component supply tape T100 is arranged in a form provided along with a component supply device 200, and must simultaneously perform switching of a holder 410 holding an emptied reel 310 and a holder 400 holding a reel 300 wound with the component supply tape T100 at the time of replenishment.
The automatic replenishing unit 100 is in a structure of introducing the reel 300 larger in width than the component supply tape T100 into the holder 400 larger in width than the reel 300 and further introducing/discharging the same into/from a holder changer 600 larger in width than the holder 400. When compared with the component supply device 200 having a structure falling within a full width F generally substantially equivalent to the width of the component supply tape T100, the device of the automatic replenishing unit 100 is large-scale, and has a full width F larger than that of the component supply device 200. The component supply device 200 is set on the component mounting device 500 adjacently in the direction of the full width F, and hence the number of settable component mounting devices 500 decreases when the full width F is large.
In the automatic replenishing unit for the component supply tape according to Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2-165696, there has been such a problem that the full width of the unit is so large that the number of component supply devices settable on a component mounting device decreases.
This leads to reduction of the number of types of electronic components preparable in the component mounting device, and hence the magnitude of the full width has been a problem to be solved in the automatic replenishing unit according to Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2-165696.